Monthly Archives: June 2024

Advanced Account Management – A/B Testing

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A/B testing, also known as split testing, informs the social media marketer which advertisement or promotion text is more effective.  A/B testing involves comparing two versions of a social media post to determine which one does a better job in achieving an objective, which can be higher audience engagement, reach, click-through rates (CTR), conversions or any other promotional success metric.

Before addressing the step-by-step approach to A/B testing, knowing what to get out of it will enable thinking backwards from the end goal, to ensure that you get the most out of the testing process.  Are you testing for higher engagement, conversions, or another metric?  For a starting point, we will focus on CTR.

A/B testing enables greater social media impact

Why is A/B testing important for a social media marketer?  A/B testing enables data-driven decisioning over promotional effectiveness, and aims to provide a clear pathway forward to achieve better results.  It enables content creators to determine which types of content (e.g., images, videos, text) resonate best with their audiences, and by testing different variations of content, key drivers for higher engagement, click-through rates, and conversions can be better understood. 

This understanding comes from obtaining insights about your audience’s preferences and behavior.  You can test different messaging or creative approaches to see what appeals most to your target demographic, helping you refine your content strategy.  For paid social media advertising in particular, A/B testing is crucial to refining ad copy, images, targeting options, and ad formats, to ensure maximum financial return on the promotional budget.

Beyond just the financial results, A/B testing can help to optimize the user experience by testing different layouts, navigation options, or call-to-action buttons, and in this way can lead to higher user engagement and conversion rates.  Most importantly, by testing variations of landing pages or lead generation forms linked from social media, you can optimize lead generation and ultimately improve revenue from online offers. 

A/B testing is not just about format.  Timing and scheduling can also be tested, to determine the optimal times and days to post content.  This ensures that your posts reach your audience when they are most active and likely to engage.

A/B testing is an iterative process, enabling a virtuous cycle of continuous learning on the part of the social media promoter, and provides an empirical basis through which to refine social media content and promotional strategies.  Slight improvements over time can generate meaningful differences over the long run, which will give you and your business a competitive social media landscape.  Through this process, you will discover innovative approaches that differentiate your brand and messaging from others in your industry.

The steps to conducting an A/B test

  1. Choose a Variable to Test:  Decide on the element you want to test. This could be the headline, image, call-to-action (CTA), posting time, caption, or any other aspect of the post.
  2. Create Variations:  Create two versions of the social media post, keeping everything the same except for the variable you’re testing. For example, if you’re testing the headline, use the same image, caption, and CTA in both versions.
  3. Determine Your Sample Size:  Decide how many users or followers you want to include in the test.  Ideally, it should be a statistically significant sample size to ensure accurate results.  Statistical sampling is a topic for another day, but if your audience size is small, then aim to divide the samples evenly.  Keep the variations limited and focused – but with significant differences to test – so that the outcome can be clearly understood.  If the sampling is small, then keep in mind that the results, due to random factors over which you have no control, may show a small enough difference that you cannot fully determine which version is better. 
  4. Randomize the Audience:  Split your sample audience randomly into two groups.  The groups should be similar in terms of demographics and other relevant factors.
  5. Schedule the Posts:  Schedule the two versions of the posts to go live at the same time. This minimizes the impact of external factors like time of day (unless you are testing for differences in posting times, in which case your promotional text would be the same, and the only variable difference is in the timing). 
  6. Monitor Engagement:  Track the engagement metrics for both versions of the post. This could include likes, comments, shares, clicks, conversions, or any other relevant metrics. 
  7. Analyze the Results:  After the posts have been live for a sufficient amount of time, analyze the results. Compare the performance of the two versions to see which one achieved your desired outcome. 

Improving insights from A/B testing

While the steps to conducting an A/B test are straightforward, the art is in the application of Insights and in identifying the winning elements of your test to improve engagement and results.  To enable better insights and to accurately attribute the results to a specific variable, ensure that you’re testing only one element at a time.  Testing multiple variables in one test can make it challenging to identify which element led to the change in performance.  As noted above, this is especially important if your audience size is small (less than 50 viewers). 

Conducting an A/B test is only the first step in achieving sustainable improvement over time.  A/B testing is an ongoing process.  Continuously test and refine your content based on the results you gather, and to develop a better understanding of what resonates with your audience.  By systematically testing different elements, you can refine your strategies and improve your social media engagement, reach, and conversions.

You can “up your game” with A/B testing with a broad range of testing tools.  Start with your own social media management platform, which frequently provides A/B testing features and key engagement metrics to track your success.  These tools can help you set up and manage A/B tests more efficiently.

A/B testing tools to improve analysis

Here are some tools that you may use:

  • Google Optimize is a user-friendly tool that allows you to create A/B tests and multivariate tests.  The advantage of using this tool is that It integrates well with Google Analytics.
  • Optimizely is a robust experimentation platform that offers A/B testing, multivariate testing, and personalization features. It’s suitable for both web-based platforms and mobile apps.
  • VWO offers A/B testing and split URL testing. It includes a visual editor for making changes without coding knowledge.
  • Unbounce is primarily designed for landing page optimization and A/B testing.  It offers drag-and-drop functionality for creating landing pages and experiments.
  • Convert is an optimization tool that supports A/B testing and facilitates split URL testing. It also includes advanced targeting and personalization options.
  • Crazy Egg is a more advanced tool for A/B testing which also provides a heatmap function and user session recordings. It’s focused on improving user experience and conversion rates.
  • Adobe Target is part of the Adobe Marketing Cloud and offers A/B testing, personalization, and targeted content delivery.
  • Split.io specializes in feature flagging and experimentation for software and product development. It is optimized for testing new features and changes.
  • Apptimize is aimed at mobile app optimization and A/B testing. It includes support for improving user experiences within mobile applications.
  • Other applications for consideration include HubSpot (own marketing platform), Leanplum (mobile-focused), Webflow (includes web design tools), Kameleoon  and Omniconvert (both with AI-driven experimentation).

The choice of the aforementioned tools will be driven by your own platform focus, as many of these are specialized for either web-based or mobile-based content.  Other key drivers are your budget, level of technical expertise and ability to integrate these with your existing platform. 

While these tools can provide insights and facilitate large scale testing, A/B testing does not require complex tools to start out, but rather, only your ability to collect and analyze the resulting data.  The power of A/B testing is taking the guesswork out of marketing decisions. Instead of relying on intuition or assumptions (which are usually good for a starting point), you make better decisions over time based on real world data, leading to more effective and efficient marketing strategies.  By systematically testing different elements of their campaigns, marketers can optimize their efforts and adapt to the ever-changing dynamics of social media platforms.

Advanced Account Management – Calculating the SMM ROI

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Calculating the Return on Investment (ROI) of a social media campaign involves measuring the revenue generated from the campaign against the costs associated with it. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you calculate the ROI of your social media campaign.

Steps to calculating social media ROI

  1. Define Your Objectives:  Clearly define the goals and objectives of your social media campaign. Are you aiming to increase sales, website traffic, brand awareness, or engagement? Each goal will require different metrics for measurement.  This step also requires that you define the time frame over which you’re measuring ROI.  Some campaigns might generate revenue over a longer period, so make sure to account for ongoing effects.
  2. Determine Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):  Identify the specific metrics that align with your campaign goals. For example, if your goal is to increase sales, relevant KPIs might include the number of conversions, revenue generated, and average order value.
  3. Calculate Total Revenue Generated:  Sum up the revenue generated directly from the social media campaign. This could include sales attributed to the campaign, leads generated, or other monetizable actions.  This might involve using tracking links, unique promo codes, or specific landing pages for the campaign to specifically link revenue results with campaign efforts.
  4. Calculate Campaign Costs:  Calculate all costs associated with the campaign, including ad spend, content creation costs, tools or software expenses, and labor costs (hours spent by your team working on the campaign).
  5. Subtract Costs from Revenue:  Subtract the total campaign costs from the total revenue generated to get the net profit attributable to the campaign.
  6. Calculate ROI:  Divide the net profit by the total campaign costs and multiply by 100 to get the ROI percentage.

    ROI (%) = [(Net Profit / Total Campaign Costs) * 100]

A positive ROI indicates that your campaign generated more revenue than it cost, resulting in a profit. A negative ROI indicates that the campaign incurred more costs than revenue.

What’s in a number? 

What are the factors that might be directly tied to revenue but still contribute to the campaign’s success, such as brand awareness, customer engagement, and long-term customer retention? 

Is there an investment factor at play?  To what extent can the revenue generated can be directly attributed to the campaign?

What is your benchmark for success?  Can you compare industry benchmarks or previous campaigns to assess your campaign effectiveness?

Can you regularly monitor your campaign’s performance and adjust your strategies based on the results?  

The ROI metric can help you identify which campaigns are successful and which need further optimization or re-messaging.  At the same time, it has inherent limitations.  In other words, the value of social media to your branding may go beyond immediate revenue by contributing to building brand loyalty, customer relationships, and long-term business growth.

Advanced Account Management – Sentiment Monitoring

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While audience sentiment is a more abstract and subtle layer of understanding, therein lies its power – crafting themes which leverage emotion. 

What is sentiment analysis?

Sentiment analysis allows you to gain deeper insights into how your audience feels about your brand, products, services, and content. This knowledge helps you understand customer opinions, preferences, and pain points.  You can better tailor your content strategy to match their emotional state.  Positive sentiment, for example, is optimally placed in the context of messaging that reinforces loyalty and sustainable co-identification with the brand.  Addressing negative sentiment can help you improve areas of concern, enabling you to better manage your brand’s online reputation. You can address negative sentiment promptly and engage with customers to resolve issues before they escalate.  Negative sentiment towards an external situation can be used as a rallying point for customers to reinforce community identity. 

Sentiment analysis relies on uncovering emerging trends and shifts in opinions, and with that, you can more effectively adapt your strategies and offerings to stay aligned with customer expectations.  Understanding sentiment not only applies to your brand but also to your competitors.  Analyzing the sentiment around your competitors can help you identify their strengths (for you to enhance and replicate) and weaknesses (for you to expose and leverage).  Negative sentiment points to specific product or service issues that need attention, enabling you to solve a problem in the market and to make advance improvements to enhance customer satisfaction.

What makes monitoring sentiment difficult is that there is no way to perfectly quantify feelings and opinions.  Data analytics relies on key words and phrases, and associating these with desired responses in engagement and purchasing.  Recognizing patterns of behavior and applying these with your messaging demonstrates that you’re listening to your customers and valuing their opinions.  This can foster customer loyalty and long-term relationships.  People are more likely to interact with content that reflects their feelings.

What can you do with sentiment monitoring? 

  • Better Decision-Making: provide data-driven guidance for marketing strategies, product development and customer support.
  • Crisis Management: understanding sentiment allows you to gauge the extent of the issue and take appropriate actions to mitigate its impact.
  • Personalization: more personalized and relevant interactions, improving customer satisfaction and increasing click-through rates and ultimately, increased sales.
  • Opportunity Identification: positive sentiment can highlight areas where your brand is excelling. You can leverage these strengths to further engage your audience and differentiate your brand.
  • Refined Marketing Messages: craft marketing messages that resonate emotionally with your audience, leading to stronger connections and higher conversions.

How can you carry out sentiment monitoring?

Incorporating sentiment analysis into your business strategy empowers you to make informed decisions, tailor your interactions with customers, and foster a positive brand perception. By addressing both positive and negative sentiment, you can build a more resilient and customer-focused brand that thrives in the digital landscape.

This analysis is no longer exclusively the domain of “rocket scientists” and back-room quants.  There are several automated tools and platforms available that can help you gauge the sentiment of your audience.  Advanced tools use natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning algorithms to analyze and categorize the sentiment expressed in social media posts, comments, and mentions.  Here are some popular options:

  • Brandwatch – social listening and analytics services, including sentiment analysis, to help you track how your brand is perceived on social media.
  • Sprout Social – social media management tools, enabling categorizing of social media mentions as positive, negative, or neutral, helping you understand how your audience feels about your brand.
  • Talkwalker – a social listening and analytics platform to help monitor your brand’s reputation across social media channels.
  • Hootsuite Insights – also enables understanding of the tone of conversations surrounding your brand or platform, giving assessment of content as positive, negative, or neutral.
  • Meltwater – a media intelligence platform.
  • IBM Watson Natural Language Understanding – natural language processing tool.
  • Socialbakers –social media marketing and analytics tools.
  • Lexalytics – text analytics platform.
  • MonkeyLearn – text analysis platform utilizing machine learning models.

Wrapping it up

Before choosing a tool, consider factors such as the social media platforms it supports, the depth of analysis it provides, its ease of integration with your existing tools, and its pricing structure. While these tools can automate sentiment analysis, when it comes to your own learning and understanding of your audience, nothing beats manually reviewing and interpreting results, developing hypotheses of audience motivation, and frequently testing these hypotheses through frequent and personal engagement.

Advanced Account Management – Unlocking Demographic Insights

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What can you learn about your audience by studying their demographics, and how can you use that knowledge to create better content?

Studying your audience’s demographics can provide valuable insights into their characteristics, preferences, and behaviors. This information can help you tailor your content to better meet their needs and interests.

Start with the basics – age and gender.  The focus here is on life stages and experiences.  More than just general trends among young males versus aged females, see your audience in contrast to opposing demographics to identify what makes your audience unique.  For example, content for a younger audience might focus on trends and pop culture, while content for an older audience might emphasize practical tips and advice.

Bring the age and gender analysis to a higher level by overlaying this understanding with geographic-based trends.  Knowing where your audience is located can help you create content that’s relevant to their geographic interests, in particular, keeping note of local events and holidays, and local culture in the form of cuisine, historical context, and music.  Local festivals and seasonal events are ripe for promotion opportunities.  Furthermore, with a broader geographic base of customers, language and national cultural opens up new areas to explore variations in offers and messaging. 

Beyond basic demographic indicators – and more difficult to track – are variables related to education and occupation.  These allow you to tailor your content’s complexity and tone.  A key driver of audience participation and engagement is their ability to associate themselves with your content.  Content for professionals might be more in-depth and industry-focused, while content for a general audience should be accessible and engaging.  Inversely, a highly educated audience would not prefer content that is written simply, with flashy colors or cartoon images.  This association is sometimes the most subtle, but at the same time most effective. 

Taking that analysis to the next level, a useful though exercise is to ask the question, if your audience were to design your platform, content and social media, what would it look like?  What does your audience expect to see? 

Additional demographic differentiators:

  • Interests and hobbies are driven significantly by lifestyle, location and social networks.  References to leisure activities can conjure feelings of passion, bringing a positive co-association to your brand. 
  • Buying behavior and income are key to highlighting the impact of purchasing power and preferences.  Is your audience more tailored for evaluating offers based on cost effectiveness or value-for-money assessments?  Are they focused on quality or quantity?  Does a discount motivate purchases or bring a mass appeal to your offer?  Does a “mass appeal” turn off potential high-value shoppers?
  • Family structure (singles, families, parents, or caregivers) can guide you in creating content that addresses life challenges and core needs. 
  • Emotional triggers and pain points can further reinforce emotional association to your products or services.  Pets, social issues and identity references can bring a more personal and human touch to your messaging.  These can also conjure opposition, underscoring the importance of having a full and comprehensive profile of your audience, and of the segments of your audience which are most likely to engage and spend.

Continuously monitor engagement metrics and gather feedback from your audience. Adjust your content strategy based on their reactions and comments.  At the same time, avoid overgeneralizing.  Each person is unique, and adherence to demographic expectations can risk identifying new and unexpected preferences among your audience.  In other words, keep an open mind. 

As your audience evolves, their preferences may change. Regularly update your understanding of your audience’s demographics and adapt your content strategy accordingly.  By using demographic data to guide your content creation, you can ensure that your content resonates with your audience, builds stronger connections, and delivers value that meets their specific needs and interests.